Coleraine High School is best in NI

The Lodge Road school comes in at joint 54th in the UK based on its examination results in both A-level and GCSE. Yesterday, Coleraine High principal, Mrs Anne Bell, expressed her delight at the top rating and praised everyone in the school community for an outstanding performance

in the past year.

"We have an environment that encourages and enriches the confidence of out pupils, whatever their pursuits. Our aim is to produce well rounded and well educated girls.

"In recent years we have done alot of work on pastoral care, providing good support for pupils from year 8 onwards and this seems to have paid off. Academic performance and pastoral care go hand in hand." Coleraine High scored 84.5% in terms of A* to B grades in A-level and 54.7% A*-A in GCSE.

Mrs Bell explained: "This was the first year of A* grades and we had 21% of pupils attaining A* to A grades at A-level - the Northern Ireland ratio was 9%.

"In GCSE more than half - 54.7% achieved A* to A grades."

The headmistress said that many of the school's outstanding pupils had performed superbly in the summer examinations. Amy Taylor came first in Northern Ireland in both History and Biology - often the domain of boys - as well as second in Chemistry.

"A number of our pupils achieved first to third places in Northern Ireland in a range of subjects.We came first and second in

ICT short course in GCSE, first and second in Religious Education, second in Religious Studies and third in double award Science.

"I think it is important to point out that all these girls who have performed well also contribute significantly to the extra-curricular life of the school whether they are involved in Hockey, Music or Art.

"Of course I must mention the commitment and hard work of my outstanding staff in helping pupils achieve what they have."

In the survey Coleraine High School finished ahead of schools such as Portora, Banbridge Academy, Strathearn College and Sullivan Upper.

"Many of those schools only accept A students whereas we have a wider ability range when pupils come to us," added Mrs Bell, who has been in the post for six years.

Coleraine High School currently has 813 pupils and 54 teachers as well as around 20 administrative staff.